Google Timeline Experiment Seen In Main Search Results

Jan 4, 2009 at 8:31pm ET by Matt McGee

Google’s “timeline view,” which was previously only available as an opt-in experiment in Google Labs, is now being seen on some queries in the main Google.com search results.

Todd Mintz tipped us to the query ["book of revelation"], which shows the timeline results pictured above at the bottom of the first page. The timeline can also be seen on queries such as [thomas jefferson] and [albert einstein].

Clicking the “More timeline results” in the main search results leads to a page with much more historical data about your query that Google says comes from their News Archive search service:

News archive search provides an easy way to search and explore historical archives. Users can search for events, people or ideas and see how they have been described over time. In addition to searching for the most relevant articles for their query, users can also see a historical overview of the results by browsing an automatically generated timeline.

Search results include content from a number of sources, including both partner content digitized by Google through our News Archive Partner Program and online archival materials that we’ve crawled. Search results can include content that is freely accessible as well as content that requires a fee. Articles related to a single story within a given time period are grouped together to allow users to see a broad perspective on the topics they are searching.

In each example we’ve seen, the new timeline display shows up in addition to the traditional ten search results, and often appears along with news, image, or book results, too.

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: User Interface | Google: Web Search | Top News

About The Author: Matt McGee is Editor-In-Chief of Search Engine Land. His news career includes time spent in TV, radio, and print journalism. His web career continues to include a small number of SEO and social media consulting clients, as well as regular speaking engagements at marketing events around the U.S. He blogs at Small Business Search Marketing and can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee and/or on Google Plus. You can read Matt's disclosures on his personal blog. See more articles by Matt McGee

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http://www.justinrazmus.com Justin Razmus

I have always been a fan of Google as they move forward. THey are always presenting something new. They certainly know what it takes to to keep their portion of the market share.
Dudibob

Just tried it now and doesn’t show on .co.uk, interesting idea but is this more junk that pushes down search results?
Matt McGee

At the moment, I’ve only seen it at the bottom of the SERPs, so it’s not pushing anything down. But that could change at some point, I suppose. :)